Adventure touring specialist Touratech first joined forces with Dutch suspension specialist Tractive in 2011. The mission was to develop an exclusive Touratech suspension product line.
Five years on, and a complete ‘Travel’ product line of shock absorbers, steering dampers, springs and closed cartridges is now available for the Adventure and Touring market. This year saw the partnership result in the ‘Long Travel’ products programme, initially for models such as the BMW F 800 GS, KTM 1190 R and Honda Africa Twin. Said to “match the robustness of the existing Touratech ‘Extreme’ products, an increased stroke and specific set-up makes these products ideal for the hard-core Rally or Adventure rider”, says Lars Würdemann, the Business Unit Manager for the Touratech suspension programme.
First introduced in 2015, this year also saw further development of the Touratech ‘Competition’ product line with shock absorbers, steering dampers and cartridges for a range of racing models such as the BMW S 1000 RR, Yamaha R1 and R6, Suzuki GSX R 1000. The range also includes electronic “Plug & Race” shock absorbers and cartridges based on the Tractive DDA patented technology, which fits with the BMW S 1000 RR original controls and connectors.
EICMA 2016 saw a public debut for something that could become a revolutionary new product that finally deals with one of the apparently unavoidable issues that has affected motorcycle suspensions ever since the first bikes were developed – “Chatter”.
“Chatter” is the name given to the front wheel movements and vibrations caused by the suspension’s natural resonant frequency. Developed by Tractive, patent pending modules featuring a revolutionary new technique called Frequency Selective Active Damping (FSAD) actively diminish wheel movements in their natural frequency. Based on proven concepts (not unlike audio wave cancellation technology), but now applied to motorcycle suspensions for the first time, FSAD technology is claimed not only to improve “tyre to surface” feedback and traction, but also to extend the tyre life of even the softest compounds.
The functionality can be fine-tuned to match track conditions and rider’s preference - the FSAD modules are mounted externally to a racing front fork fitted with Touratech suspension cartridges and will be available in 2017.
Finally, Tractive and Touratech have already been active in the stereo shocks sector for a number of years, but because of customer demand and feedback, the companies have cooperated to establish a new product line called “Black-T“ to serve the urban riding market.
TOURATECH AG
www.touratech.com
